Popularity is something I thought about but I wouldn't let it stop me using a name I really liked. Hazel & Arthur are becoming quite popular now, I think. I'm not sure what rank they are but it doesn't bother me anyway. I've never met another Hazel or another Arthur but I wouldn't be overly disspointed if there was another Hazel or Arthur in their class when they start school. I'd be slightly annoyed because they'd have to be Hazel D or Arthur D but I would also be excited that someone else has a good taste in names, too.

Using the top names for your area is a much more effective way to gauge popularity, but it really doesn't matter. Personally I plan on avoiding the top 20, maybe the top 50. Below that, you'll probably meet a few, but they won't be in abundance, and that's really all that matters.

I really think I am going to go off names I love. Sometimes it really is just random. My name was not that popular when I was born, yet there were five or six of us in my high school class (it was a small class). But my friend who had the number one name in the year we were born was the only one. It seems impossible, but names are weird like that.

Or maybe you pick out a pretty obscure name and then a celebrity comes along with the same name. Like Adele. I know a girl and now whenever she meets people she tells them her name and they say like the singer. That would be annoying.

I think it's more important to go by what the common names are in the area around you, rather than what's in the top 10 or top 50 or whatever. (for example: Sophia is in the top 10 but I've yet to meet a Sophia here, and Brinley isn't in the top 100, but I know at least half a dozen little girls named Brinley)

My name was #35 for the year I was born, but growing up there wasn't another girl with my name in the entire school. By the time I got to high school there were a few others, but the school was so big I never had a class with one of them. Now that I'm older I've met a few with my same name, but we all go by different nicknames so it's never been a problem.

I think the popularity of stuff can be wrong. For example, Lily is super popular, right? But I work at an all girls camp in the summer, and attend a public high school, and I've only ever met 1 Lily. Now, take the names Sophie and Claire. I've known about 4 Sophie's, but they are all from different places, and they don't know each other. For Claire/Clair/Clare, I've only met about 3, and once again, they don't know each other. So, although they are extremely popular, there are never actually that many. Sometimes there are surprises though. For example, at camp, there was 1 Sophie, 1 Claire, No Lily's, and 4 Willa's. It's just luck.

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